The provincial capital, which is earmarked to be a city sadly is a haven for the underground sex business in which girls as young as 15 years old who drop out of school and pupils are selling their bodies cheaply for pleasure and money. Some of the women talked to within Chipata recently confirmed that there are over prostitutes who include girls mainly from Hillside Girls Secondary and Chipata Day Secondary schools who patrol streets at night.
The women, who are mainly drop-outs and single mothers, said the youngest prostitute is in Grade Six while many of those from secondary schools are in Grade Eight and Nine and a few in Grade She said although the trade is risky, she has managed to recruit about eight girls, the youngest being in Grade Six.
She was forced to sell her body in exchange for money to enable her take care of her three children and she did not want them to suffer. However, Queen would like to quit the business because prostitutes are not respected and are prone to abuse and sexually-transmitted infections.
She cited an example of how some men always demand oral sex as a humiliating encounter. Queen said there are no financial gains she derives from selling her body and she was now working with a local non-governmental organisation as a peer educator in a quest to reform. Similar sentiments were echoed by her colleague, Mata, 28, not real a mother of two who completed her secondary education prior to becoming a prostitute.
Mata was also forced into prostitution in following the death of her husband, who left her with two children. She readily agreed with Queen that there are more risks than benefits in selling her body but she was compelled to do it to enable her children to have food and go to school. She is engaged in peer education during the day and in the night she carries on with her trade.
